Community urges Common Council to fully fund schools

By Kevin Schultz

Published 9:48 pm, Thursday, February 23, 2017

NORWALK — Hundreds of community members descended on City Hall’s Concert Hall Thursday evening to show overwhelming support for the whopping 10.1 percent increase — or an additional $17.75 million — put forth by the Board of Education for its 2017-2018 annual operating budget.

Students, parents, school officials and taxpayers took to the mic in the front of the large hall and were given three minutes to make their case to the Common Council’s Finance/Claims Committee before the group was slated to set the overall cap for the city’s operating budget later in the night.

Reasons for support of the large operating budget increase ranged from the need for more resources to meet the needs of a growing number of students to the act simply being a reinvestment of money into the city.

She and her husband originally planned to move out of the Norwalk Public Schools district before their children were of age to go to school because of the school district’s poor perception.

However, Hopkins said they ultimately stuck it out and are looking forward to future progress of the district reliant on the passing of the operating budget.

“For the first in my six years in the district and — from what I hear — for the first time in a really long time, we have a well thought out strategic operating plan with clear goals,” Hopkins said. “We cannot let the opportunity to bring this plan to fruition slip away. The quality of our school system benefits every single Norwalk resident. Our city’s reputation and property values depend on high quality schools.”

She said with cuts to an already tight school budget, “we’ll never be able to meet our goals and take our children to the next level.”

“We understand the requested increase appears dramatic but we must be mindful of the fact that half of the requested increase covers runaway costs in health insurance for employees,” Todd said. “These are fixed expenses which must be paid. Approving any less than the 5 percent healthcare increase will effectively remove money from the classroom. We ask you this evening to think creatively about solving these problems so that our children will not have to bear the consequences of caring for the adults.”

He went on to state that the school district saw an increased enrollment of 57 students in January alone, many of whom have “significant educational needs.” He said that caused the school’s to absorb a cost of $957,600 to meet the needs of the new arrivals.

“An underfunded budget will worsen overcrowding as we will be forced to eliminate positions and consolidate already bulging classrooms,” Todd said.

As referenced several times throughout the night, a majority of the large increase, 4.9 percent or roughly $8.61 million, would strictly cover increased health insurance costs. The other 5.2 percent increase includes: 2.3 percent or roughly $3.98 million for program improvements stemming from the district’s Strategic Operating Plan, 1.5 percent or roughly $2.62 million to cover normal cost escalation, and 1.4 percent or roughly $2.54 million for a special appropriation to cover enrollment growth in the district.

Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski has said he is exploring possible solutions to the increased health care costs with city officials, including a plan to combine the school district and city employees for the purpose of self-insurance or enter the city in the State 2.0 Health Insurance Program, which covers employees of Connecticut towns, cities and school districts.

Officials say acting on that could cut the price of the health insurance costs by $5 to $8 million dollars.

City Director of Finance Robert O. Barron previously recommended a 3.8 percent, or $6.63 million, increase for the school district for 2017-2018, less than half of the 10.1 percent, or $17.75 million, increase the Board of Education had asked for.

Barron said Thursday’s meeting was the third step in a larger 5-step process.

After the Common Council sets a cap for the city’s total operating budget, it would go on to the Board of Estimation and Taxation to determine each department’s specific budget. Mayor Harry Rilling said another public hearing would be held on the operating budget March 22.

Many in the crowd hoped that the Common Council would think of education when deciding on the cap later in the night.